The fluted pumpkin Telfairia occidentalis (Hook F.) is a very important vegetable, popularly cultivated in South Eastern Nigeria for its economic value and its role in nutrition. It exhibits a high degree of interspecies variability and as such enhances biodiversity. Twenty landraces of fluted pumpkin were collected from five States in southern Nigeria which include; Anambra, Ogun, Lagos, Ondo and Enugu State. The landraces were grown in the Botanical Garden of Lagos State University, Ojo during the rainy season of 2013 for phenotypic screening to determine genetic divergence. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications. Genetic characterization was conducted in the biotech lab of the national institute of medical research (NIMER). The genomic DNA was extracted from the samples and extracted DNA samples were amplified through the PCR techniques using four primers (RAPD – 01, OPR-02, OPC – 04 and SCAR-1 primer) to access diversity among the genotypes. The result reveals a huge genetic divergence among the genotypes studied. The genotypes were grouped into five clusters based on a 2.0(20%) level of similarity by single linkage cluster analysis, which agrees with morphological data, each containing fluted pumpkin genotypes sharing common properties and being similar to one another.

Vernonia amygdalina (Bitter-leaf) is a plant whose consumption (leaf and stem) by human races especially Nigeria cannot be underestimated. It is mostly consumed because of its nutritional and medicinal uses in correcting some ailments such as high blood sugar, hypertension, and so on. Vernonia amygdalina growth is hinged on the availability or absence of water in relation to soil. Thus, this study assessed the effect of water stress on the morphological growth of Vernonia amygdalina seedlings. The stem cuttings were obtained from viable growing bitter-leaf plant situated on a small well cultivated garden with only bitter-leaf plants. The experiment was carried out at the Greenhouse of the Botanical Garden of Lagos State University, Ojo. The data were analyzed and result presented in table and bar graph. The result showed that although V. amygdalina can be planted using all types of water treatment as observed in this experiment, the result of the three watering regime shows that the best and favourable growth environment for this plant is normal wet treatment water regime (wetting everyday) followed by water logged treatment water regime (excess water) and the least favourable growth environment which can be manageable in absence of the two first mentioned water treatment is the drought treatment (wetting once a week). The amount of water available to plant will affect the rate of photosynthesis. If the plant does not have enough water, the plant's stomata will shut and the plant will be deprived of carbon dioxide.